Chronicle

A panel at Yale Law School debates whether a company can claim ownership of a natural substance.

In
the
1990s
Myriad
Genetics,
collaborating
with
investigators
at
the
University
of
Utah
Research
Foundation
and
other
institutions
and
companies
around
the
world,
isolated
the
BRCA
1
and
BRCA
2
genes,
which
are
linked
to
both
breast
and
ovarian
cancer.
In
1997
the
U.S.
Patent
Office,
ruling
that
the
isolated
DNA
of
these
genes
were
discrete
chemical
compounds,
granted
a
patent
on
the
BRCA
1
gene...

“It
started
with
a
couple
of
e-mails
from
a
couple
of
residents,”
remembered
Mark
Gentry,
a
clinical
support
librarian
in
the
Cushing/Whitney
Medical
Library.
Yale
residents
doing
rotations
at
Makerere
University
in
Uganda,
a
partner
with
the
School
of
Medicine
since
2006,
needed
library
resources.
Since
Internet
access
in
Kampala
was
unreliable
at
that
time,
Gentry
started
with
portable
solutions,
like
CDs
with...